If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail -Abraham Maslow

Building quality software relies on a myriad of tools.  One essential pillar of craftsmanship software or otherwise is in the mastery of tools that you work with. Some tools that I think are important for a software craftsman:

The Mind:
The most important and essential tool that you have is your mind.
All software originates as a thought so having a clear thought process is necessary.
Unfortunately we have become accustomed to google, facebook and twitter. Being mindful of what you are trying to achieve is important. There is a quote from the TV show Sherlock that has stuck with me “People fill their heads with all kinds of rubbish. And that makes it hard to get at the stuff that matters. Do you see?” Treat your mind as a garden and only let in thoughts that should be nurtured, getting rid of weeds is essential.

The Operating System
I use xubuntu linux, which to me offers simplicity and power. Using Linux forces me to learn more about the underlying machine itself.
We must remember for all the clouds that are now available, ultimately it is a group of computers connected to a network. Quoting Larry Ellison “Google does not run on water vapor”. The choice of operating system that you go with will have a effect on how much of the underlying system you understand. Macs and Windows will abstract a lot of the underlying machine, which if you are an application developer may not be a bad thing  in terms of productivity gains. However gaining knowledge of underlying processes will be harder.

The Programming language:
There are a plethora of programming languages available and to persist with the thought that all languages are made equal is a fallacy.
Using the right language for the job at hand will go a long way in building successful products. Learning a different language than one which you use on a daily basis will create new ways of thinking. For instance try writing to a file first in Java, then in Python. While I am not getting in the argument of which is better, I do want to emphasize that languages have there own strengths.To deal with data in flat files, you are missing out if you do not use the trinity of awk,sed and grep(sed and grep being command line tools). They will provide in simplicitly for which you would be writing programs of hundreds of lines in a high level language.

The Text Editor
From notepad to vim to sublime text to even a IDE. The text editor is where you translate your thought to code. Structured information that can make computers do what you want it to do. Mastery of the text editor will determine how long it takes you to write code assuming that you can type.

Version Control:
Any Software that is not one time use should be maintained in a version control system. Git is my favorite, however depending on your work environment you could end up using svn or perforce. git has many subtleties that will be apparent with practice, know your git and never worry about losing source code.

The Debugger
While best avoided since you do want your mind to be the compiler, debuggers aid understanding both the program and data flow in complex projects. Mastering the debugger will go a long way in solving bugs in programs that you are unfamiliar with and sometimes in code that is familiar.

Databases
Databases are the foundation of the applications that we build.
We have SQL and not only SQL. For structured data SQL based databases are still golden.
Since real data is not always structured, that has forced the move to NOSQL databases.
Redis is the swiss-knife of data in key-value pairs. Learn about couchbase or mongodb for exposure to document based databases.

This list of tools is in no way comprehensive, Building mastery of tools is a long and arduous process. However taking tiny steps today go a long way and add up in a few years. More often than not the problem you are trying to solve will drive the tools that you will use. So try to solve as many different problems as you can, slowly but surely you will see a expanding toolkit.

The path I have laid for myself is to always be learning and teach what I  learn.  I would love to know your experiences in mastering the tools that you work with and ultimately in mastering your craft.

What does the word craftsman evoke? For me it is images of toolmakers building watches, shipbuilders working in tandem towards building massive vessels and of course developers cranking out code.

Progressing as a craftsman is a hard task. I think there are three key essentials for success.

1. The Guidance of Master Craftsmen/Women(henceforth referred to craftsman for the rest of this essay).

2. The burning desire to build, tweak and continuously refine.

3. The tenacity to work hard through the not so interesting parts.

Self learning is a good thing, but in the company of master craftsmen one can make giant leaps. As I rediscovered, working with the best evokes the desire to build better. There are techniques one can pick up by observation and osmosis.

While I was writing this post I rather serendipitously came across a documentary called “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” .(Available as of 30th Dec 2012 on Amazon Prime and Netflix streaming.) Jiro is a master Sushi chef who runs a Michelin 3 star restaurant in a Tokyo Subway.(Earning 3 stars from Michelin means that the place is so good that it is worthwhile to visit the country just for that restaurant.) Jiro at 85 years plus is someone who is at the peak of his craft and still aims to surpass it each day.

What resonated strongly was the idea that to achieve success you need to be so good that you cant be ignored. Further building on this is another idea that you need to satisfy your work rather than rooting for some dream passion. Satisfying the work that is given to you is a stepping stone towards building expertise and thus uncovering a deeper satisfaction of the work that you do.

It was also enlightening to see the tough regimen that aspiring sushi apprentices have to undergo before they can even handle fish often running into many years. Jiro’s son Yoshikazu a master Sushi Chef in his own right at 50 years still gets critiqued by his demanding father. The other takeaway was simplicity and the ability to develop an expertise in a niche area. There are no shortcuts and one has to commit to a lifetime of learning.

Finding a master is not easy. Why should anyone spend time to critique you? This is not a question that I have an answer for, just theories. Ultimately one needs to offer something of value. Finding a way to lighten your potential master’s load or solving a problem for him is one way to form a symbiotic relationship. The other motivation I think comes from great craftsmen themselves who want the craft to progress. In an environment like a Software company or even a Sushi bar like Jiro’s it is imperative to train apprentices to take upon future roles as craftsmen themselves. This is pure economics at play once the enterprise needs to run at scale.

There are times when apprentices get assigned dreary tasks. I think the most successful craftsmen have gone through this phase, tenaciously completing the assigned tasks, learning the domain along the way.Many problems are apparent only after doing the grunt work first.

I wish you a lifetime of learning. I would love to know  how you became a Better craftsman or even a Master Craftsman 🙂 ?